Google: Everyone's Best Friend
I
was scrolling through my Facebook feed earlier, and I noticed a post that said
“Respect your parents, they passed school without Google.” So out of
curiosity, I asked my mom how her life was like when she teenager. Mom said
being in high school in the 80’s wasn’t that bad but without Google, she had to
actually go to the library to borrow books or look up information from an
encyclopedia or even ask the teacher. I realize we still do these today,
but definitely not as much as we used to because it’s not really necessary when
you can just Google it. Even libraries have computers these days!
Speaking
of Google, chapter 8 of The Shallows was really interesting because I
never really thought much about how it all began, and it was pretty cool to
learn about the roots of my go-to place when I need to find something out. The
fact that there is actually science behind its layout and colors was something
that I didn’t know. I guess I will never fully understand just how it works
with the algorithms, and such but it will never seize to amaze me just how much
results pop up in basically milliseconds as Kaila pointed out. With so much
information available online, it’s no wonder people prefer to just Google
things and skim through the information without really paying attention to it
rather than actually studying it – as Carr discussed in chapter nine.
Having
Google is something that so many take for granted. I know that many of us rely
on it to find out information about pretty much anything you can think of from
instructions on how to give your dog a bath to finding out how the meaning of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It would be crazy to live in a world
without it, yet so many people did – even our parents did. Anyway, I don’t know
if I could handle not having Google or any other search engine because I’ve
grown to depend on them for so many things, especially homework and projects. It
must’ve been a real challenge to not have the internet or even a GPS around, in
fact, my grandma always tells me how lucky my generation is with all our
technology and I completely agree with her. I really admire my parents, and pretty much everyone who lived at a
time before Google or computers. I imagine the world will change a lot next few
years or decades with new inventions and such, but I can only hope to have
Google forever (or whatever better thing comes along).
I think our growing reliance on search engines, the internet, and technology in general will one day be our downfall. Heck, within the next ten years our smart phones will probably have a mind of their own. Maybe one day the technology will be able to fight back. That is the the plot line for at least five movies right there.
ReplyDeleteOkay, that makes me not want to see what the future holds now, but I guess I see where you're coming from. With all that is being discovered and invented, I'm sure AI is definitely happening eventually.
DeleteI was just talking about the same thing with my mom yesterday. She was telling me how much time it took to actually go get your book and then read through it to get your information. She thinks that projects were done better when Google wasn't around because the facts they found really were from actual research that was hard work. It wasn't just skimming through articles to find what you need. Anyway I agree with you Mary, I don't know what my life would be like without search engines, and I honestly don't know if I would like to find out.
ReplyDeleteI am a victim of depending on Google and search engines as well. We have become dependent upon search engines because, I included, we are too lazy to go out and get a book or encyclopedia to find out the information we need. We live in a world where we want everything instantly and everything to be done fact because as Postman argued, our attention span is not that long
ReplyDeleteI've talked to my mom about this before, too. She told me the librarians knew *everything*. They were google. Still, I asked her if she thought it was harder. She told me that if she had been give the work I'm given now when she was in high school she'd never succeed, and the only reason being that she didn't have google to depend on. She said that as it becomes easier to get information, work becomes much, much harder. So, in the long run, she believes that our high school experiences are very similar. There are lots of things google could never answer, anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like how you pointed out how much is done behind technology. I'd rather be in the city more than being in the wilderness, don't hate, because I like to see what man has created with his intelligence and creativity, it's beautiful. We've done the impossible simply because we were challenged or inspired. It reminds me of the things I can achieve because I posses that intelligence and creativity, even if it has nothing to do with technology.
Hope I don't sound like a crazy new world enthusiast!
No, your perspective on the world is awesome. And I agree, I'd rather live in the city with all the new advancements in technology and all the creations humanity has to offer than somewhere that remains constant, barely ever changing. I quite like technology and I believe it can do some pretty amazing things. But most importantly I believe in mankind. We've done some awful and some awesome things. And I'm very excited for the future and all the great things it has to offer.
DeleteGoogle forever sounds quite nice. I think that we rely on google so much because of the convenience. Everyone is so busy that looking up information in a book is out of the question. I owe google immense gratitude because it very much so helped me throughout school . I wrote a blog with a similar idea as yours that focused on how we are too reliant on sources such as the internet for information so it goes without saying that I agree with your statements. I think at the end of the day search engines (such as google) will be popular for a long time.
ReplyDelete